Colton Iverson A Big Factor

http://bostonherald.com/sports/celtics_nba/boston_celtics/2014/07/colton_iverson_a_big_factor



Colton Iverson a big factor
Hopes to earn spot on Celtics


Thursday, July 3, 2014 PrintEmail1 Comment
By:  Mark Murphy



WALTHAM — Jake Eastman is a basketball operations assistant for the Celtics and, this week, part of Jay Larranaga’s summer league staff.

Eastman certainly is game. He’s the son of former Celtics assistant coach Kevin Eastman and played college basketball at Bradley. But even on that level, rarely does a player run into a Colton Iverson pick.

“Jake Eastman just came up to me, and he was sore from Colton setting screens on him in drill work today,” Larranaga said yesterday. “Colton is a big, physical dude. That’s his key.”

Indeed, if last year’s second-round pick is going to make the Celtics roster in 2014-15, it’s because a year of Euro-style, perimeter-oriented basketball in Turkey didn’t dull his physical edge.

Larranaga smiled.

“I thought Colton had a really good summer last year,” Larranaga said of the 7-footer who arguably was the most active big man on the summer league Celtics a year ago. “Everyone took to him. He plays with a really great intensity and physicality, and he continues to show that. He is what he is, though. He’s a big, strong defensive presence and rebounder. That has not changed.”

There also are refinements. Iverson believes he improved his footwork while playing for Besiktas of the Turkish League, and that he was exposed to the best competition outside the league once the team started playing in the Euro Cup.

He also has a stronger stomach, courtesy of food poisoning on his first day of training camp last year.

“It was training camp for two weeks up in the mountains, a place called Bolu. It was the hotel we were staying at, and I ordered lamb,” he said. “I still practiced, but I was sick for about a week.”

Then came the fouls, and a savvy group of opponents who knew exactly how to get a physical American in trouble.

“I definitely had to adjust my game when I got over there. I was averaging four or five fouls for the first two months,” he said. “I had to learn how to play without fouling, but I can still play physical. That’s my style of play. I’m always going to be someone who’s a pest to play against. I take pride in how I play — physical, and just a menace.

“It was tough because I’m such a physical player, and they’re really strategic players. They know how to draw fouls on you, especially with the American-type basketball that we play. They know how to play against it. I had some really good games at the beginning, and then teams started scouting us. But I think I learned from it. As the year went on, I got better and better.”

He learned how to work the so-called Euro step, for example.

“You can get the ball on the perimeter and take four steps, but if you get the ball in the post and leave your pivot foot before dribbling, like on a back-down, it’s a travel every time,” he said.

But Iverson has spent his summer in Waltham, working on his post-ups with Jared Sullinger and Kelly Olynyk, getting accustomed once again to the NBA way.

It helps that Iverson senses a much greater opportunity to make Brad Stevens’ roster this season.

“Definitely. I think there’s a lot better chance coming in,” he said. “I was 90 percent sure I wasn’t staying here last year. So I do it now, or I see what happens at the end of free agency. I feel I have good feet, can run and move well for my size. I like contact. I don’t shy away from contact like a lot of bigs do nowadays.

“They tell me to keep playing my game, nothing special. Rebounding, play defense, be a team player. That’s everything I do anyway. There’s some things out of my hands, but if I play well in summer league, that’s something I can do.”



bob
MY NOTE:  Ok, I'm going to say it right now, I know what it's going to take for me to consider Orlando to be a success or failure.  I already know what Kelly and Phil can do against NBA talent.  I'm confident that Marcus Smart is going to have a damn good NBA career regardless of how he fares against the bubble players in the summer leagues.  I'm familiar with C-squared (Chris Babb and Chris Johnson) and I don't care about the rest of the players who will be filling out the roster.  I'm going to be focused, heavily, upon Colton Iverson, especially his pick-and-roll defense.  If he shows he can do that (something which Fab Melo never showed he could, not even in summer league against decidedly inferior talent) then I'll excitedly look forward to seeing him against better talent in pre-season exhibition games.  If not, we're in serious doodoo.  I know, it's not good to hang our hats on a late second round player who has never played in the NBA before but, by sheer good fortune for us and not so good for us, the door is WIDE open for him to take this team by storm.  Go Colton!


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Giddy up Colt.

Love the hard pick concept as long as he can refrain from moving on it.  I'm not worried about losing him to fouls because, if he makes the team, he's unlikely to play a lot of minutes.

This makes three Celtics about whom we've recently read a lot concerning excellent defensive skills—Iverson, Bradley and Smart.  Could Perk make it four?

I'd like to be aboard when Colton first lays a hard pick on Vitor.  Watch for Vitor to chase down a referee and scream, "He touched me.  He touched me.  There's no touching in basketball."

Sam

Isn't soccer a wonderful sport to watch. It contains the best elements of ballet and drama. Such amazing acting performances. Too bad the players suffer so many horrific injuries on the field and have to be carried off in stretchers, tears rolling down their cheeks.

sam wrote:Love the hard pick concept as long as he can refrain from moving on it.  I'm not worried about losing him to fouls because, if he makes the team, he's unlikely to play a lot of minutes.

This makes three Celtics about whom we've recently read a lot concerning excellent defensive skills—Iverson, Bradley and Smart.  Could Perk make it four?

I'd like to be aboard when Colton first lays a hard pick on Vitor.  Watch for Vitor to chase down a referee and scream, "He touched me.  He touched me.  There's no touching in basketball."

Sam

sam,

It'd be pretty funny if Vitor screamed for a foul against Iverson, unless Vitor got traded first. Unfortunately Iverson and Vitor play the same position so, if they are playing against each other in practice, Iverson will probably not be setting a pick on Vitor.



bob



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IF he's a BIG factor in summer league he MAY get to play for Maine during the NBA season (while officialy being a Celtic).

I am not getitng my hopes up that Iverson will ever reach the "lofty "NBA abilitys of even Steamer.

Its funny that people still believe that European players are soft.Vitor Played in Europe against tough player like Nathan Hawaii and Sofoklis Shortaniklis that really are strong and you think he is going to cry for a hard pick ,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALZyWytUlxYcome on!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALZyWytUlxY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScE4BQi-7Tc

Bob,

I was thinking of practice.

International, I've never in my life seen Vitor set a pick and hold it.  Never.  Not one time.  He almost did once; but, at the end, he let it slip.  He may have trained against tough guys, and perhaps that's one reason why he refuses to set picks, but he definitely does not set them as a Celtic.  He slides up to the defensive man as though he's going to set a pick, but he keeps on sliding right by the defensive man.

Sam

I'm not quite sure how Iverson figures to be a "big factor." If he doesn't make the team, nothing changes. If he does, I doubt he gets a lot of minutes (barring injuries).

I do hate to sound so pessimistic.


KJ

international wrote:Its funny that people still believe that European players are soft.Vitor Played in Europe against tough player like Nathan Hawaii and Sofoklis Shortaniklis that really are strong and you think he is going to cry for a hard pick ,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALZyWytUlxYcome on!!!!

international,


I watched this video you provided.  The guy whose video it is, Sofoklis Schortsanitis, is 6'10", 345#.  What I saw was him bouncing a lot of defenders backwards.  Ok, I can understand that, he's 345# for Pete's Sake and we saw Shaq do that a lot too, but I didn't really see them trying to hold their ground very long (also didn't see much help defense from their teammates either).  I saw him set one pick and even that one he held just long enough but not too long.  Almost all the footage was the ball being dumped into him in the low blocks and him overpowering his man.  All the physical play I saw was by the offensive player and not by the defensive players and I only saw one pick-and-roll play.  The question about Vitor is "why doesn't he set picks that make contact with the defender?" and I don't see where THIS video shows anybody setting and holding picks.

Besides, I don't care about what Sofoklis does, I care about Vitor because he's in green.

Last year was a real eye-opener for him, I think.  He was the only real center on the team, the biggest guy around.  This year, if Iverson makes the team, he won't be and Iverson plays very physical.  Iverson noted that in Turkey he picked up a lot of fouls early in the season because he was too physical and had to back off a bit.



Vitor's coming back from surgery, so we'll see how good he does with that.



bob



.

k_j_88 wrote:I'm not quite sure how Iverson figures to be a "big factor." If he doesn't make the team, nothing changes. If he does, I doubt he gets a lot of minutes (barring injuries).

I do hate to sound so pessimistic.


KJ

KJ,

I think it was meant to be more like 'BIG'.


bob


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Bob,my point is simple.European leages are not easy as people in the states think,Iverson was a bench player in Besitkas in Turkey and that league is not as good as the league in Spain.Vitor held his own in that league since he was 18 years old.Forget about picks ,basketball is a lot more than picks.During my time as a sport fan of NBA and MLB with the Celtics and Cincinnati Reds I have seen a a factor that I don't like....Both the Celtics fans and The Reds fans tends to undervalue their own players,for them everybody on another team is better....for example I saw in another page some Celtics fans saying that a trade of Rondo and Jeff Green for Jeremy Lin,Chandler Parsons and Clint Capela is a good one for Celtics...come on ,Lin is a bench player and Capella could play in the league of France.Faverani is not as bad as many f you think ,he was just a victim of a garage sale that the Celtics had last season,they had to use Bass,Humpries and other players because they were trying to trade them.

I should say Cappela could not play in France.

international wrote:Bob,my point is simple.European leages are not easy as people in the states think,Iverson was a bench player in Besitkas in Turkey and that league is not as good as the league in Spain.Vitor held his own in that league since he was 18 years old.Forget about picks ,basketball is a lot more than picks.During my time as a sport fan of NBA and MLB with the Celtics and Cincinnati Reds I have seen a a factor that I don't like....Both the Celtics fans and The Reds fans tends to undervalue their own players,for them everybody on another team is better....for example I saw in another page some Celtics fans saying that a trade of Rondo and Jeff Green for Jeremy Lin,Chandler Parsons and Clint Capela is a good one for Celtics...come on ,Lin is a bench player and Capella could play in the league of France.Faverani is not as bad as many f you think ,he was just a victim of a garage sale that the Celtics had last season,they had to use Bass,Humpries and other players because they were trying to trade them.

international,


I'll say the same thing this year that I said at this time last year, I hope you're right. I sincerely want to see Vitor succeed.


bob


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International, I wish it were possible to end every debate by saying "Forget about that" to anyone who disagrees with me.  Unfortunately, I cannot forget about picks because they can make a huge difference to this Celtics team.  They are the first part of the most frequently used offensive maneuver in the pro game today—the PICK and roll.  Picks can complement a motion offense by adding yet another element that forces defensive opponents to adjust and chase elusive offensive players.  Picks can give a shooter the extra second that can spell the difference between a hurried shot and a successful one.

It is impossible to forget about the huge impact of picks in today's game.  Perhaps Vitor can learn how to hold a pick.  He certainly didn't learn it last season.  My guess is that we're talking about different things.  You're talking about toughness, and I'm talking more about technique.

Sam

Just to add too, seems refs are MUCH more prone to call moving picks much more frequently then even a few years ago. Sometimes there is as much blame to the player using the pick as the one setting it.

And you can't set a pick sitting on the bench in foul trouble, although you won't be moving there.

beat

Sorry Sam,but I really think you are not fair with Vitor,because you cant make judgement without the benefit of fair playing time.He was in the bench all the time and for a player who base his game close to basket where he can use a fast first step and good use of both hands is not good.For me who played 12 years in a tough league and played international basketball the main thing for a big man is to rebound and play good defence in the post,if he can make good picks,great but interior defense and rebounding should be his bread and butter like we say here in PR.With such limited time we cant judge him in the rebounding and defense deparment.I really think that instead of being arguing about a Celtics player we should be talking about the future season.With Kelly Olynyk is the same thing ,people complainint about him because he did not put great numbers but when he played fair minutes he did great,it wasn't his fault that the coach use veterans with no future on the team like bass and Humpries instead of him.

Sure hope you're right international. Frankly I'm more concerned about Vitor's D than how he helps the O at this point.

International, I appreciate your support of Vitor, and I have nothing personal against the guy.  I just do what you do and base my opinions on what I see.

Vitor played 488 minutes last season.  It's reasonable to assume that the Celtics had at least one possession per minute (probably more).  That means that, even excluding transition possessions, Vitor probably had at least 300 opportunities to set a real pick.  I watched most of those possessions, and I didn't see him set a single pick.  Three hundred is a lot of possessions to observe, regardless of how many games he missed.

Being able to set a pick is not just some sideline for a center in this league.  As I said earlier, the PICK and roll is the single most used offensive play in the NBA.  Vitor can roll, but the PICK part is missing with him, and the PICK and roll is less effective without a solid PICK.

As for Vitor basing his game down low, only four regular Celtics rotation players (who lasted the season with the team) had more three point attempts per minute than Vitor did.  There's nothing wrong with having a three-point touch, and frankly he surprised me with his accuracy.  But what the Celtics need is a center who will provide bruising defense and who can open things up for teammates by setting solid picks on offense.  I read all the nicknames for Vitor and was expecting a bruising defensive player in the lane.  I didn't see much of that.

I'm reasonably certain he'll be with the team this coming season.  I'll be eager to see how much he's been working on his game during the off-season and how much he's able to help the team where it most needs help.  I wish him the best.

Sam